Poet: Greta Zwaan, © 2009
In the depth of nightfall when all is dark and still,
When birds have ceased their singing, night creatures roam at will;
When sight has lost its focus, when eerie sounds occur,
When work is turned to slumber and dreams begin to stir,
When life takes on new meaning, sub-conscience is in charge,
Our lives take new directions, we're free to delve at large.
We travel in the future, we rush back in the past,
We fly like hawks or eagles; our scope is wide and vast.
But morning breaks upon us, our dreams have sped away,
We ponder o'er their meaning, what do dreams really say?
Do they convey a message? Do they produce a plan?
Is it a way to guide us as we live out life's span?
Or is it mere obsession, our thoughts out of control,
Not by design or meaning, just useless on the whole?
We emphasize their virtues, we tally up their score,
Yet dreams are fleeting moments that we can't answer for.
It's in our daylight hours that minds achieve their best,
And even under pressure they'll pass the strictest test.
Minds are a golden treasure, unlimited resource;
A great expanse of knowledge, a strong and vital force.
If used for good, a blessing, a light, a shining ray;
To reach into the darkness, to turn night into day.
Perhaps dreams are adventures experienced in our mind,
That leave when we awaken, their message undefined.
We cannot delve too deeply, we must let some things rest,
The mind has been creative, perhaps a bit obsessed.
Dreams will be dreams, whatever; don't always analyze,
Let nighttime bring you slumber, let dreams be a surprise.
Poems Of Encouragement
Poet: Berton Braley
We were busy making money
In the world's great game;
We were "gathering the honey"
When the vision came.
We greeted it with laughter,
Though we frowned upon
"The fools" who followed after,
When the dream had gone!
Oh, we were canny schemers,
So we sold and bought;
And jeered the silly dreamers
And the dream they sought.
We gave but fleeting glances
To that "hare-brained crew,"
For we took no stock in fancies-
Till the dream came true!
So much had gold imbued us,
So had greed been nursed,
We'd let the Best elude us
And we'd kept the Worst;
We long to "do it over,"
But we cannot try,
For every dream's a rover
And our dream's gone by!
Poems About Failure
Poet: Lew Wallace
Wake not, but hear me, love!
Adrift, adrift on slumber's sea,
I would thy soul might hast to me.
Wake not, but hear me, love!
A gift from Sleep, the restful king,
A happy wish for thee I bring.
Wake not, but hear me, love!
Of all earth's wishes now 'tis thine
This once to choose the most divine.
So choose, and sleep, my love!
But ne'er again in choice be free
Unless thou choose to wish for me!
Poet: Catherine Pulsifer
The future, it’s not a surprise,
We plot and plan, then realize
Seeds of life are what we weave,
Our daily efforts we must not leave.
We choose what to instill in our heart
For nothing comes if there’s no effort made to start.
Harvest awaits with bountiful delight,
Our dreams we can reach with focus and might.
Garden Poems
Poet: Catherine Pulsifer
Dreams give us sight of a better place,
Beyond the struggles we all face.
Rather than just dreaming away,
We must take action and have our say.
Set a goal and find new strength,
Rather than settling for what's at length.
Desires bring needed fire to succeed,
Hold on tight and never concede.
Dreams are only useful if put into action,
By doing this you will live your passion.
Poet: Hamlin Garland
Oh, to be lost in the wind and the sun,
To be one with the wind and the stream!
With never a care while the waters run —
With never a thought in my dream.
To be part of the robin's hlting call
And part of the bobolink's rhyme,
Lying close to the sky-thrush singing alone,
And lapped in the cricket's chime.
Oh, to live with these beautiful things!
With the lust and the glory of man
Lost in the circuit of Spring-time suns —
Submissive of earth and part of her plan —
To he as the snake lies content in the grass!
To drift as the clouds drift, effortless, free,
Glad of the power that drives them on
With never a question of wind or sea.
Dream Quotes
Poet: Berton Braley
Back of the beating hammer
By which the steel is wrought.
Back of the workshop's damor
The seeker may find the Thought,
The Thought that is ever master
Of iron and steam and steel.
That rises above disaster
And tramples it under heel!
The drudge may fret and tinker
Or labor with dusty blows,
But back of him stands the Thinker,
The clear-eyed man who Knows;
For into each plow or sabre.
Each piece and part and whole,
Must go the Brains of Labor,
Which gives the work a soul!
Back of the motors humming,
Back of the belts that sing.
Back of the hammers drumming,
Back of the cranes that swing.
There is the eye which scans them
Watching through stress and strain.
There is the Mind which plans them—
Back of the brawn, the Brain!
Might of the roaring boiler.
Force of the engine's thrust.
Strength of the sweating toiler.
Greatly in these we trust.
But back of them stands the Schemer,
The Thinker who drives things through;
Back of the Job - the Dreamer
Who's making the dream come true!
Motivational Poems
Poet: Catherine Pulsifer
I had a dream, I turned around
and therefore a goal abound.
I use to just wish but that went nowhere
At that time goals, I was unaware.
Each day I did a little thing
And my dream started to bring
A reality to my life of being
Not a dream, but a real thing!
Poems about Goals
Poet: Hamlin Garland
Oh to lie ill long grasses!
Oh, to dream on the plain!
When the west wind sings as it passes,
A weird and unceasing refrain;
Where the rank grass tosses and wallows,
And the plain's rim dazzles the eye,
When hardly a silver cloud bosses
The flashing steel shield of the sky!
To watch the gay gulls as they glitter
Like snow flashes and fall from on high,
To dip in the deeps of the prairie,
When the crows-foot tosses awry.
Like the swirl o' swift waltzers in glee,
To the harsh, shrill creak of the cricket
And the song of the lark and the bee!
